Borders of Infinity

'My people don't use surnames.'

'Ah. And, uh, what are you doing after the party?'

At this point, alas, interference found them. 'Heads up, Captain,'

Miles murmured. Thorne drew up instantly, cool and correct, and followed Miles's gaze. The quaddie floated back from the force barrier and bowed her head over her hands held palm-to-palm and palm-to-palm as a man approached. Miles too came to a polite species of attention.

Georish Stauber, Baron Fell, was a surprisingly old man to have succeeded so recently to his position, Miles thought. In the flesh he looked older than the holovid Miles had viewed of him at his own mission briefing. The baron was balding, with a white fringe of hair around his shiny pate, jovial and fat. He looked like somebody's grandfather. Not Miles's; Miles's grandfather had been lean and predatory even in his great age. And the old Count's title had been as real as such things got, not the courtesy-nobility of a Syndicate survivor. Jolly red cheeks or no, Miles reminded himself, Baron Fell had climbed a pile of bodies to attain this high place.

'Admiral Naismith. Captain Thorne. Welcome to Fell Station,' rumbled the baron, smiling.

Miles swept him an aristocratic bow. Thorne somewhat awkwardly followed suit. Ah. He must copy that awkwardness next time. Of such little details were cover identities made. And blown.

'Have my people been taking care of your needs?'

'Thank you, yes.' So far the proper businessmen.

'So glad to meet you at last,' the baron rumbled on. 'We've heard a great deal about you here.'

'Have you,' said Miles encouragingly. The baron's eyes were strangely avid. Quite a glad-hand for a little tin-pot mercenary, eh? This was a little more stroke than was reasonable even for a high- ticket customer. Miles banished all hint of wariness from his return smile. Patience. Let the challenge emerge, don't rush to meet what you cannot yet see. 'Good things, I hope.'

'Remarkable things. Your rise has been as rapid as your origins are mysterious.'

Hell, hell, what kind of bait was this? Was the baron hinting that he actually knew 'Admiral Naismith's' real identity? This could be sudden and serious trouble. No—fear outran its cause. Wait. Forget that such a person as Lieutenant Lord Vorkosigan, Barrayaran Imperial Security, ever existed in this body. It's not big enough for the two of us anyway, boy. Yet why was this fat shark smiling so ingratiatingly? Miles cocked his head, neutrally.

'The story of your fleet's success at Vervain reached us even here. So unfortunate about its former commander.'

Miles stiffened. 'I regret Admiral Oser's death.'

The baron shrugged philosophically. 'Such things happen in the business. Only one can command.'

'He could have been an outstanding subordinate.'

'Pride is so dangerous,' smiled the baron.

Indeed. Miles bit his tongue. So he thinks I 'arranged' Oser's death. So let him. That there was one less mercenary than there appeared in this room, that the Dendarii were now through Miles an arm of the Barrayaran Imperial Service so covert most of them didn't even know it themselves … it would be a dull Syndicate baron who couldn't find profit in those secrets somewhere. Miles matched the baron's smile and added nothing.

'You interest me exceedingly,' continued the baron. 'For example, there's the puzzle of your apparent age. And your prior military career.'

If Miles had kept his drink, he'd have knocked it back in one gulp right then. He clasped his hands convulsively behind his back instead. Dammit, the pain lines just didn't age his face enough. If the baron was indeed seeing right through the pseudo-mercenary to the twenty-three-year-old Security lieutenant—and yet, he usually carried it off—

The baron lowered his voice. 'Do the rumors run equally true about your Betan rejuvenation treatment?'

So that's what he was on about. Miles felt faint with relief. 'What interest could you have in such treatments, my lord?' he gibbered lightly. 'I thought Jackson's Whole was the home of practical immortality. It's said there are some here on their third cloned body.'

'I am not one of them,' said the baron rather regretfully.

Miles's brows rose in genuine surprise. Surely this man didn't spurn the process as murder. 'Some unfortunate medical impediment?' he said, injecting polite sympathy into his voice. 'My regrets, sir.'

'In a manner of speaking.' The baron's smile revealed a sharp edge. 'The brain transplant operation itself kills a certain irreducible percentage of patients—'

Yeah, thought Miles, starting with 100% of the clones, whose brains are flushed to make room. . . .

'— another percentage suffer varying sorts of permanent damage. Those are the risks anyone must take for the reward.'

'But the reward is so great.'

'But then there are a certain number of patients, indistinguishable from the first group, who do not die on the operating table by accident. If their enemies have the subtlety and clout to arrange it. I have a number of enemies, Admiral Naismith.'

Miles made a little who-would-think-it gesture, flipping up one hand, and continued to cultivate an air of deep interest.

'I calculate my present chances of surviving a brain transplant to be rather worse than the average,' the baron went on. 'So I've an interest in alternatives.' He paused expectantly.

'Oh,' said Miles. Oh, indeed. He regarded his fingernails and thought fast. 'It's true, I once participated in an … unauthorized experiment. A premature one, as it happens, pushed too eagerly from animal to human subjects. It was not successful.'

'No?' said the baron. 'You appear in good health.'

Miles shrugged. 'Yes, there was some benefit to muscles, skin tone, hair. But my bones are the bones of an old man, fragile.' True. 'Subject to acute osteo-inflammatory attacks—there are days when I can't walk without medication.' Also true, dammit. A recent and unsettling medical development. 'My life expectancy is not considered good.' For example, if certain parties here ever figure out who 'Admiral Naismith' really is, it could go down to as little as fifteen minutes. 'So unless you're extremely fond of pain and think you would enjoy being crippled, I fear I must dis-recommend the procedure.'

The baron looked him up and down. Disappointment pulled down his mouth. 'I see.'

Bel Thorne, who knew quite well there was no such thing as the fabled 'Betan rejuvenation treatment,' was listening with well-concealed enjoyment and doing an excellent job of keeping the smirk off its face. Bless its little black heart.

'Still,' said the baron, 'your . . . scientific acquaintance may have made some progress in the intervening years.'

'I fear not,' said Miles. 'He died.' He spread his hands helplessly. 'Old age.'

'Oh.' The baron's shoulders sagged slightly.

'Ah, there you are, Fell,' a new voice cut across them. The baron straightened and turned.

The man who had hailed him was as conservatively dressed as Fell, and flanked by a silent servant with 'bodyguard' written all over him. The bodyguard wore a uniform, a high-necked red silk tunic and loose black trousers, and was unarmed. Everyone on Fell Station went unarmed except Fell's men; the place had the most strictly-enforced weapons regs Miles had ever encountered. But the pattern of calluses on the lean bodyguard's hands suggested he might not need weapons. His eyes flickered and his hands shook just slightly, a hyper-alertness induced by artificial aids—if ordered, he could strike with blinding speed and adrenalin-insane strength. He would also retire young, metabolically crippled for the rest of his short life.

The man he guarded was also young—some great lord's son? Miles wondered. He had long shining black hair dressed in an elaborate braid, smooth dark olive skin, and a high-bridged nose. He couldn't be older than Miles's real age, yet he moved with a mature assurance.